Backturn
by Abstract Ideas
Summary: For every path taken, there is another not taken. For every happy ending, there is one that is not. And for every hero, there must always be a villain. And for this world? In this world, the gods are the victorious villains, and the Titans are the failing heroes. Let the world of Greek myths change forever.
1. Prologue

**I do not own PJO. All rights are reserved to Rick Riordan. I am not earning money from writing this. All writing is for my own enjoyment.**

**Inspired by ack1308's MirrorVerse.**

**In one world, the Olympians represent the forces of good, and the Titans, the forces of evil.**

**In this world, it is not so.**

_**Prologue: Through the Mirror**_

**At the birth of the world from Chaos, Gaia and Ouranos were birthed. Ouranous became the primordial god of the Sky, and Gaia, the primordial goddess of the Earth. **

**Their first batch of children, the Hecatoncheires, otherwise known as the Hundred-Handed Ones, were hideous, Gaia had decided, and unworthy of her name. Despite Gaia's wishes to have them tossed within the Pit, Ouranos refused and raised them as his own children.**

* * *

_"They are not my children, Ouranos, I could never give birth to something so... so... so hideous!" Gaia screamed in the background, the Earth echoing her movement. Earthquakes raged. Animals ran in terror. Strange geological movements occurred, causing the extinction of several species. The tectonic plates trembled. Volcanoes erupted and islands sank. Famines occurred as plants withered and died suddenly. Entire lakes disappeared._

_Any other person would've been terrified and submitted. _

_Ouranos had never been normal. Whereas the Earth raged, the sky was quiet. Where there was starvation due to lack of food, birds willingly delivered themselves down to the ground for sustenance. Rain fell from the sky, granting animals a source of water. Where there was despair, rainbows appeared. _

_For every ill Gaia did towards the denizens of the Earth, Ouranos calmed them, helped them, saved them._

_"No. They are my children, just like any other." He calmly declared, his crown of lightning weighing upon his head. Any man, however, with a hint of intelligence, could tell that Ouranos was at the end of his patience. Lightning crackled between his fingertips. Thunder rumbled ominously outside. The clouds stirred darkly._

_"Fine. Have it your way. I'm not raising those... those... things!" Gaia shrieked at him before storming out, causing minor earthquakes and forest fires to erupt in the process all over the Earth._

_He sighed, before looking at the cradle. Those hundred-handed and fifty-faced sons of his were causing quite a bit of trouble for him. Still. He would not judge his sons merely by their looks, or their abnormalities. He would judge them fairly._

_Ouranos reached out to pick one up, and one of the arms of his sons quickly slapped his finger away._

_He sighed. "You're going to be quite the pain in my backside, aren't you, my sons?" He supposed that was fitting, in a way. Still. If Gaia would not raise them, he would, to the best of his capabilities. It was, after all, what any good father would do within nature.  
_

_"I name you, Briareus," He pointed at the first of his sons. "Cottus," He pointed at the second. "And Gyges." Pointing at the last of his sons. Putting his hand down, he murmured. "And you will be my sons, the Hecatoncheires."_

* * *

**The same thing occurred with the Cyclops. Their mother demanded, once again, that they be thrown into Tartarus, and sent to rot there for eternity. Once again, Ouranos refused.**

* * *

_This time, Gaia thought, as she stormed the palace of the clouds. He would listen to her this time, she swore. She would not let these children be her legacy._

_"Ouranos!" She shrieked out loud. The gates of the great palace slammed open, opening up to see a young man wearing a crown of lightning, staring with annoyance at her._

_"Ouranos, I demand that you-" She began before he waved his hand and simply glared at her._

_"No." He simply said._

_She glared at him. How dare he deny her before she had even finished speaking?_

_"You didn't even know what I was going to say, **husband.**" She venomously retorted. Anybody could sense the pure hatred and vitriol radiating from the words. _

_"I knew exactly what you were going to ask, Gaia." He calmly replied. "You were going to demand that I throw them within the pit. To kill them. To make them suffer. To erase their existence within the world. So no, Gaia. I will not doom my children to that fate."_

_She stared at him venomously. "You are no husband of mine, nor are you a king of any sorts." She hissed out. "You are a fool, and unworthy of the throne which graces your behind." Glaring one last time at Ouranos, she stormed out of the palace, raging all the while._

* * *

**Everything changed upon the birth of the Titans. Gaia decided that they were 'worthy' heirs, and raised them herself and refused to let Ouranos see them, telling him that they were hers, and not his.**

* * *

_"Gaia. My patience is stretching thin. Where are my children?" Ouranos asked angrily. _

_She smiled. "Since you decided so **graciously** to raise those monsters, I've decided to thank you by raising my true children. By. My. Self." She responded. "They'll be my heirs. You can keep your monsters and pretend they're your children. I'll keep them for myself." She turned her back on him.  
_

_"Now. Leave." She coldly demanded. Ouranos couldn't understand. What did she think she was doing? Did she think this was vengeance against him, somehow?_

_Ouranos stormed out of the cave, the sky rumbling with anger as he walked out._

* * *

**Gaia, who hated Ouranos for accepting the Cyclops and Hundred-Handed Ones, raised the Titans to kill him. Training each one of them to hate him. Despise him. **

* * *

_Gaia smiled happily at her children. They had all been conditioned to hate Ouranos. They were her heirs, nor Ouranos's. Watching as Oceanus and Krios fought each other playfully with toy blades. Watched as Rhea and Phoebe glare at the male Titans and mutter, "Boys."_

_Her smile turned darker as she imagined Ouranos being torn apart by them. Yes, in time, they would go and kill their father. Then she would be Queen, and his monsters would be cast into the abyss, forever forgotten, and never remembered by anyone as her-_

_She blinked in annoyance as she felt a poke on her shoulder. She turned back and saw Kronos, the youngest of her children, holding a small bird, looking at her with wide eyes.  
_

_"Kronos? Why are you holding a bird?" She queried inquisitively. Why was he bothering her?  
_

_"It's Flappy!" He exclaimed. "His wing got injured, see?" Pointing at the wing, she saw that it had been torn off a bit. A life-threatening wound for the bird, but nothing that she couldn't fix, and as she prepared to raise her hand to fix it, she paused. _

_This would be a perfect opportunity to teach him. She thought, before putting a kind smile upon her face and looking at him.  
_

_"Kronos? Why do you want to help it?" She asked with a smile. "Why should you help it?"_

_"He's hurt!" He replied with a bright smile. "I want to help him!" Yes. That was the answer she had been expecting._

_"But why?" She asked once again._

_His face scrunched up in concentration. "Because he's hurt!" He replied once again, not understanding what she was asking._

_"But wouldn't it be kinder to let him go?" She queried with a twisted smile on her face. "After all, won't he have to go through this again anyways later in life? Letting him continue to live now would be a pain, wouldn't it?"  
_

_Kronos looked at her and looked down. "Y-y-yes..." He mumbled. Good. He was beginning to understand what she was asking. Now, to make him understand._

_"Well? Will you release him from this world into the loving embrace of death? Will you release him from suffering?" She stated. "Will you let him die?" She finished with a sinister smile._

_"Y-yes." Kronos replied with tears in his eyes. Good. _

_"Then gently bring your finger up to his neck," She told him and watched as he did so. "And push out your power." She finished. _

_Kronos slowly brought up his finger up to the bird's neck, and with tears flowing down his face, and pushed out the power within him into the bird's neck, instantly killing it, he dropped the bird, looking at it with red eyes and cheeks._

_"Good." She smiled. "Now, why don't you go play with your brothers and sisters?" She told him as she walked away._

_Meanwhile, behind her, Kronos had fallen to the ground onto his knees, sobbing away at the life that he had taken away._

* * *

**Her training worked. Most of the Titans, became bloodthirsty. Murderers in every means of the word. They took pleasure in the death of life. They took joy in giving death to all.**

**Except for a few, standing strong in the middle of it all, and most notable among them, Kronos.**

**He had always doubted his mother's teachings. Doubted what his mother wanted for them. Despite this, he followed her. He became the greatest warrior among the Titans. Gifted a scythe by his mother, he was told of her plan to kill his father, and his four brothers, Krios, Iapetus, Hyperion and Koios were ordered to follow him in his path while she distracted their father.**

* * *

_Kronos was nervous, to say the least. Here he was. To kill his tyrant of a father. To kill the monsters his father employed against him and his siblings since birth. The father that had attempted to kill them again and again, only prevented by his mother tirelessly again and again._

_He suddenly was slapped on the back, with a cheerful voice stating. "Ah, Kronos, stop looking so grim! Today is the day we end the reign of the tyrant and enter our own age!" _

_Hyperion, looking cheerful as always, he thought. Flashing a weak smile back at him, he prepared his scythe as he saw his father enter the cave._

_It was time._

* * *

_Ouranos was nervous and excited at the same time. Gaia, after ages of him begging, had finally granted him an audience with their children. Finally, he could talk to them and see how they had progressed and grown. Finally, he could let their other brothers, the Cyclops and the Hecatoncheires meet with them. Briares, in particular, had been quite curious about his Titan brothers, asking him questions again and again about them._

_He entered the cave with a nervous smile. Would his children like him? Would they look like him? Looking around, he prepared himself, and he saw..._

_Nobody. There was only Gaia, sitting there on the floor, with a smile on his face. What was she doing? _

_"Gaia? Where are my children?" He queried with a frown. _

_"Oh, they'll be coming along soon." She said with a smile. What did she think she was doing? She had told him that she would let him meet his children at last. Maybe they were out hunting or something. Yes, that must have been it._

_"So, should I wait? What are they doing right now, anyways?" He asked patiently. They wouldn't be doing anything too dangerous or harmful, would they?_

_"No, no, no, of course not." She responded as her smile grew larger. "Except for, of course..." _

_She snapped her fingers, as vines and stone suddenly surrounded the cave entrance._

_"Killing you." She finished. His eyes widened as he began to attempt to teleport out._

_Try as he might, he couldn't get out. If this was out in the open sky, within his domain, it would be quite easy. But away from where he ruled? Where his powers were significantly reduced? _

_He **would** get out eventually, no doubt about that, but for now? It was enough to restrain him._

_"What do you think you're doing?!" He screamed at Gaia. She looked at him once more, smiling, before simply saying. "Kill him."_

_He suddenly felt a blade cut into his back, and he gasped in pain. Looking behind him, he saw five masked people, wielding weapons of various kinds, at the forefront, a man wielding a scythe at the forefront who tilted his head at him. _

_Ouranos attempted to summon lightning to throw at the group, but stranded as he was beneath the Earth, his powers would not, could not answer him. And the five masked people cut and slashed at him once more._

_Try as he might, Ouranos had never been particularly good at fighting. He had never excelled within it. And unarmed as he was? _

_He didn't stand a chance. His hand was cut off as the man with a scythe sliced. His back was cut into again and again. His kneecaps were shattered, and the bones within his arms were left completely broken. Attempting to strike at them was futile, as he was continuously beaten back by the others._

_Sent flying back after a powerful blow from the man with a scythe, he was tossed to the ground onto his broken knees, looking up into the man's eyes._

_Snarling with anger, he managed to summon a bolt of lightning within him and prepared to manifest it within his hand. Even if he would not live from this experience, he would kill at least one of them, he thought grimly._

_The man with the scythe walked towards him._

_"So, you bastard." The man began venomously. "Do you know what you've done?" _

_Let him talk. He thought. Let him give a monologue to him. It didn't matter anyway. He was going to die regardless._

_"No comment? Then it's time for you to die." The man snarled before raising up his scythe and prepared to slice down._

_He readied his lightning bolt. He would only get one shot at this. _

_The man slashed his scythe down at him, even as he shoved his lightning bolt forth, and watched with satisfaction at the man's shocked, gold-speckled, eyes._

_Wait. Gold? _

_Without a second thought, he ordered for the lightning to disperse. And he fell to the ground, coughing on his blood, his chest sliced open, as he looked into his **son's** eyes._

_He was going to die soon. His power was dispersing. His essence was already dissolving. Whatever powers had been imbued within the scythe had been more than enough to end him. Permanently._

_"Why did you stop?" His **son **snarled out. "Why didn't you **kill **me?"_

_He coughed out more blood, before looking into his son's eyes._

_"Because..." He rasped out, clinging to life all the instant. "Because you're my son. I-" He gasped for air._

_"I can't kill you. I-" He coughed out more blood, his guts hanging out of his chest all the while. "I love you."_

_His eyes closed as the last spasms of life within him faded. His flesh dissolved into nothing but golden dust. His crown of lightning, which he had always worn, faded away into nothing but blue sparks._

_Ouranos was dead. The King of the Sky, who **was** the sky, was dead. _

_Long live the Queen._

* * *

**Almost immediately after the death of Ouranos, Gaia seized power. Expecting obedience from her children, she set about ruling the Earth. Her first decree was to cast the Hekatoncheires and the Cyclops into Tartarus. To never let them see the light of day once more.**

**Unknown to her, her son, Kronos, began to hate her. He had heard the last words of his father. He knew what she had told him and his siblings were lies. Lies, every single one. His father could've, should've, killed him. It would've saved his life. He would still yet live.**

**Yet... he hadn't. Kronos yet lived. Ouranos was dead and his spirit scattered.**

**His mother had lied to him. Lied to them all. She had told them that he had hated them. He had not. She had told them that he was attempting to kill them. He had investigated and discovered that it was _Gaia_ who did it to train them.**

**Gaia had lied. And Kronos would and _could_ make her pay.**

* * *

_"Hello, mother." Kronos smiled down at his chained mother. _

_"What are you doing, Kronos? Release me at once!" She screeched out. _

_Normally, he would obey. Normally, he would accept her word. Now?_

_Kronos just didn't care. _

_"You killed our father." He said slowly, acting like she was a child. "You lied to us. You lied to us all." Gesturing his hands towards the Great Hall, showing the faces of all of his brothers and sisters. _

_To say that there was anger and shock in their faces was an understatement._

_"I believe that the only appropriate punishment, as I have agreed with my siblings in our council, is for you to be imprisoned." He simply said. "Killing you would be better. It would avenge Father. But unlike **you**, I am no kinslayer. I will be merciful."  
_

_He waved his hand. "Take her away to the Pit." Two of his siblings, Krios and Hyperion, walked forth with grim faces and dragged Gaia away._

_"You can't do this!" She screamed. "I AM THE QUEEN!"_

_Kronos looked at her with boredom. "Not anymore." _

_Screaming and kicking all the while, bound in chains, she was dragged away by Hyperion and Krios._

_The whole room was silent. Suddenly, Themis kneeled._

_"Long live the King." She said._

_Slowly, the entire room knelt. Looking at Kronos, they all proclaimed at once. "Long live the King."_

* * *

**The seizure of the throne by Kronos led the world into the Fourth Age. Mankind, for the first time, flourished. Monsters were seen and banished back to the Pit. Mankind lived forever. Animals found themselves at peace for once. It was truly, a Golden Age. Alas, it was not to last.**

**After years of the rule of Kronos, he grew tired and decided to marry someone. Rhea. **

**The marriage of Kronos to Rhea proved prosperous. The Golden Age flourished even further, as life grew happily over the world.**

**All that changed upon the birth of Hestia.**

* * *

_"PUSH, RHEA, PUSH!" Kronos bellowed._

_"I AM PUSHING, YOU PIECE OF CRAP!" Rhea screamed back. The mountain shook with their screeches and yells._

_Suddenly, it was all quiet. All quiet except for the crying of a baby._

_Rhea looked completely exhausted. But she was smiling. She cooed at the baby. Before showing it to Kronos._

_"Doesn't she look precious, Kronos?" She asked, continuing to coo at the baby. _

_He looked at his child. She looked absolutely precious. With wisps of brown hair along her head, he was already in love with her. Although there was something about her aura..._

_He blinked in realization before smiling amusedly. She wasn't a Titan. Although that was to be expected, he admitted, considering the irony of the fact that two Primordials had produced Titans for kids, instead of other primordials._

_He would not act like his mother. He thought. No. He would give his children a proper childhood. And he would never, ever harm them._

_That was his duty as a father, after all._

* * *

**Kronos's children were known as: Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth and Home. Hades, God of the Dead and the Underworld. Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest and the Earth. Poseidon, God of the Seas and Oceans, Hera, Goddess of Marriage, and the final scion, Zeus, God of Thunder and Lightning. **

**Many claims state that Kronos should've just killed them all at birth, and all would've been well. It certainly would've prevented the end of the Golden Age, after all.**

**Hestia, eldest amongst them all, decided that Kronos had ruled for too long. And the flames of rebellion began.**

* * *

_Hestia frowned. She didn't want to do this. But her visit to her grandmother... well, it had shown her the truth of what her father was. She had to do this. And all her siblings agreed with her, after their visits to the Pit._

_The reign of the Tyrant King must end._

_She tied on her helmet and motioned for her siblings to follow her._

_Unknown to them all, Gaia laughed madly within her prison, as the seeds of darkness she had planted within them grew further and further._

* * *

**The rebellion began quickly and unexpectedly. The capture of the Southern Stronghold of Krios occurred quickly, and Krios was quickly imprisoned within his own dungeons and locked in. The Titan War had begun. **

**As the war proceeded onwards, it became apparent that the gods were losing. So, in order to secure victory, they decided to free the inmates of the Pit. A terrible deed was done upon that date, to which mankind still suffers from to this date.**

* * *

_Zeus frowned as he spearheaded the fight to within the Pit. Kampe, the most loyal of all the jailors and the most dedicated to their duty fought against him desperately. He had never wanted to kill Kampe, who was merely doing her duty._

_A single spear from Hades stabbed through her chest, and she fell to the ground, desperately gasping for air._

_"You can't..." She gasped out desperately. "Y-you can't fr-free them. D-do you know the damage this will wreak upon the world?" _

_Zeus closed his eyes. "I know." He said. As he slowly approached her dying body and picking up the key. "But it must be done."_

_Kampe slumped over, lifeless, as Zeus walked up to the door._

_"Pledge your loyalty to me, demons and monsters." He spoke simply. "Or rot in there for the rest of eternity."_

_The millions of voices within grew silent. A second later, a great voice spoke. "And who are you, to force us to pledge allegiance to you?" The voice rumbled._

_"I am Zeus." He simply stated._

_The voice laughed mockingly. "Zeus? I know nothing of that name. Only our hatred for the Titans reign supreme. Hear my voice, Zeus. I am Briares of the Hecatoncheires. Free me, or I will kill you when I get out."_

_"If." he simply stated. "If you get out. And besides. We can give you your heart's desire."_

_The voice grew silent for a moment before it spoke again. "Oh? And what would that be?" It rumbled menacingly._

_"We are at war with the Titans." He said simply and bluntly._

_The voice laughed. "Oh. Oh! OH! Yes, I agree to your terms, Zeus. Unexpected, but I, Briares of the Hecatoncheires, swear allegiance to Zeus upon the River Styx. So mote it be." _

_At first, only a few voices spoke the same words. But as time went on, more and more monsters swore the same oath. As more and more oaths piled up, until he had heard millions of oaths swear loyalty to him, Zeus closed his eyes, his heart screaming in rage against what he was about to do, put the great key within the door, and twisted it._

_The door opened. And all the monsters of mankind came flooding out._

* * *

**The opening of the gates of Tartarus marked the beginning of the end of the Golden Age. Millions died on each side, as the gods rallied, again and again, defeating Hyperion in battle at his very own stronghold and forcing him to flee, fighting off Oceanus as he attempted to sink the fleets of the gods, and the capture of Koios at his castle within the North, all signs of the growing weakness and end of the Golden Age. The forging of the Master Bolt, the Helm of Darkness, and the Trident of Poseidon by the Elder Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires were simply another sign of the approaching end.**

**The gods eventually, after forcing the Titans back to Mount Orthrys, their final remaining stronghold, Zeus and his siblings climbed onto _Olympus_, a nearby mountain, and sheared off the top of Orthrys with his Master Bolt, ending the First Titanomachy.**

* * *

_Kronos and his siblings lied in chains before the gods. Their once great armies were broken. Their world-shattering powers had failed them. _

_The Age of the Titans was over._

_Kronos looked up at his grim-looking son. He simply looked up and croaked out a single word. "Why?"_

_His son looked down. All of his siblings did the same. Until Zeus took a deep breath and said. "Your reign of corruption is over." He looked away. "Take them away."_

_The Elder Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires walked forward, with pleasure etched deep into their faces. "This has been a long time coming, Kronos." Cottus smiled sinisterly. "For vengeance and for the death of our father, you **will** suffer."_

_Meanwhile, in the deep mountains and forest, where Gaia had fled to, she simply **laughed** at her corruption of the gods._

_If she could not claim the world, nor burn it by her own powers._

_Then she would simply corrupt others to do it for her. Already, the seeds of darkness within the eldest gods were **blossoming** well and good. Hera had shown signs of cruelty and took enjoyment in shattering marriages. Zeus took an uncomfortable amount of pleasure in seeing people shocked and tortured again and again. Demeter loved to see people starve, her joy at starvation well and true, and Hades had begun assigning most of the corrupt and willing to serve the gods into Elysium, while the good and the righteous were sentenced towards the Fields of Punishment. Poseidon had begun sinking entire cities, enjoying the terror and desperation in their eyes as they drowned._

_And Hestia? She would succumb to the darkness she had planted within her, sooner or later._

_Already homes around the world began to burn as Hestia's struggle to maintain the light within began to fail against Gaia's darkness._

_The Age of the Tyrant Gods was here at last._

* * *

**The Titans were all cast into Tartarus, their own prison which they had imprisoned all the monsters of the world within. Kronos suffered the worst fate of them all, however, cut into a thousand pieces and torn apart by the vengeful Elder Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires.**

**Zeus was crowned King of Olympus, the god of the sky, lightning, and thunder. His brothers, Poseidon and Hades, each inherited a different part, with Poseidon taking the oceans and the seas for himself, and Hades took the Underworld, the realm of the dead, for himself.**

**Decades passed and life came back. Mankind crawled back from the depths it had been cast to during the First Titanomachy. It would never regain the glories it had witnessed during the Golden Age of the Titans, but it would still yet survive, under the iron heel of the gods.**

**The first new Olympian born was Ares, the god of war. While a brutal god, Ares did indeed have standards, unlike most of his fellow Olympians. With a code of honour, and considered one of the kindest gods of the Olympian pantheon, he would not strike a foe while he was down, and he would treat each foe with respect and fight them all equally. He would protect his allies with his dying breath, and although he knew that war was a necessity, he still did not like it.**

* * *

_Ares stood there quietly and still upon the battlefield, looking at his foe, waiting for him to stand back up._

_His foe crawled back up, and wielding a half broken blade, he screamed a foreign curse at him, before charging at Ares._

_With a quick cut and slash of his blade, the man fell to the ground dead, and Ares sheathed his sword back in and looked down sadly at the man._

_Muttering a quick blessing for the man, Ares left the battlefield to honour the dead within his home upon Olympus, and to help his fellow warriors, those who had stood beside him even as they faced terrible odds, with the enemy having greater numbers and better weapons._

_They were brave and courageous. And he would remember them for it._

* * *

**The next two Olympians born were known as Artemis, goddess of the moon, the hunt, archery, wilderness, chastity, and childbirth. And her brother was Apollo, the god of the sun, light, healing, plagues, music, art, poetry, archery, reason, knowledge, truth, and prophecy****. The children of Zeus and Leto. Each had their own cruelties. Artemis enjoyed torturing men for years on end and believed that all men were worth 'absolutely nothing' and were a curse upon the world. Her hunters, recruited personally by her, followed her loyally and were sadistic killers and murderers of the highest tier. **

**It had become a well-known saying within Greece that if you were a man, and saw a silver arrow land next to you, it was better to slit your own throat and die, rather then fall into the hands of the Hunters of Artemis.**

**Apollo, on the other hand, had even fewer qualms then Artemis. Slaying Python, a peaceful dragon who had never truly wanted to harm anyone, and stealing the dragon's powers of prophecy for his own sinister purposes. Soon after, he had established the Oracle of Delphi, a well-known seer and doomsayer to cast the hearts of mankind into fear and doubt. He also enjoyed unleashing new plagues upon mankind, sending hundreds, if not thousands into the cities of mankind, and laughing all the while as the city suffered and died slowly.**

**It was Apollo, after all, who had created the Black Death and smallpox intentionally during the Middle Ages.**

* * *

_Artemis smiled with joy in her eyes as she heard her hunters torture men in the dozen within their camps._

_She looked around and smiled. One man had his spine ripped out, and was barely attached to it, screaming in agony as he hung from the tree which they had bound his spine too. Ah, the wonders of immortality._

_Another was screeching in pain as his liver was ripped out, and most of his organs were lying already on a bunch nearby, her huntress taking obvious joy in it as her eyes practically shined with sadistic happiness as she happily hummed while ripping out more of the man's organs. _

_She looked around, and all that she could see was filthy, disgusting men suffering in pain. And she was happy._

_Artemis looked to her feet, at the profusely bleeding man who had attempted to free his brother who had been captured by them. What a fool he was. _

_She looked him in the eyes and told him. "You shouldn't have come to your brother, male." She whispered simply as she began carving out his eyeballs._

_Ah, truly a joy in life._

* * *

_Apollo looked at the disease-ridden city and laughed._

_It was truly a good idea to see how this disease did. The city previously was prosperous and happy, with all of its inhabitants joyful and fearless, and love had been rampant within it. Corruption was low, and everyone had been happy._

_Not so as it was now. The city now was filled with rats, as people ate worm-ridden bread and foul water desperately. The word 'family' had lost its meaning a long time ago, with babies cast out as a resource, and sibling killing sibling in an attempt to survive. Cannibalism had gone rampant as even the worst of foods became scarce. Corruption was rampant in the hierarchy, as those on the top languished happily and laid their fat bodies upon soft mattresses, as hundreds died every day beneath them._

_Apollo laughed joyously as he remembered how he had sent the city into ruin. By causing a famine through ruining all their crops, burning them away with the Sun. By taking away their greatest musicians and artists by sending diseases their ways. By sending the Doomsayers of Apollo in to continue speaking of the end of the city._

_What a nice place to live in, he thought with amusement._

* * *

**The fourth born Olympian was Hephaestus. Son of Hera. Tossed from Olympus by Hera, who could not bare his ugliness, he became the most bitter and cynical of the Olympians, as the god of forges, fire, technology, volcanoes, craftsmen, sculptors, and blacksmiths. He forged the greatest weapons, imbuing them with his own bitterness and hatred, and causing their wielders to go mad, slaughtering entire cities and burning empires with their madness.**

**His anger caused volcanoes to erupt around Greece constantly. Sculptors were sent into ruin if they displeased him. Blacksmiths were dedicated to the art of war, as Hephaestus took pleasure in forging weapons and watching wars occur and thousands dying in them. Craftsmen were damned to the Fields of Punishment if they did not worship him at least once a day, and fires raged across Greece, burning beautiful forests and destroying triumphant cities, simply because of his bitterness at the beauty of life.**

* * *

_Hephaestus smiled at the burning ruins of Pompeii. They had been prosperous once. Beautiful. Life had been there at every corner, and men and women lived to old age and passed into the darkness with a smile. _

_Disgusting. Life was not beautiful, it was hideous. Life was not a gift, it was a curse. Beauty? Beauty did not exist. Even his own wife, Aphrodite, he viewed as a hideous monstrosity, if just the least of the monstrosities upon the Earth. He had despised all of life. And he would continue to despise it towards the end of days._

_He laughed with a voice of fire as he forged more swords, more weapons, to 'gift' to mortals, and for them to slaughter more of the monstrosity that was known as life in his name._

* * *

**The fifth born Olympian was Athena. Born at the time at which Zeus swallowed Metis, out of fear that his power would be usurped, and his throne be taken. She had grown tired of staying within Zeus's body and consistently bombarded him with headaches in an attempt to get out. Hephaestus, upon hearing of his headaches, sought to open up Zeus's head and see what the problem was, cracking open his head and watching in disbelief as Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, climbed out as a fully grown woman.**

**Becoming infamous for her hubris, she would smite mortals and curse them if she even _perceived_ an insult. The most vengeful of all the Olympians, she murdered thousands who even mentioned her without a blessing, and it became a forbidden word to speak around Greece, of the name of _Athena_ unless you were to bless it in the same sentence.**

**Her hubris was to be the damnation of empires. She never thought that she could be wrong. Never thought that her plans could fail. She never had a contingency. Only a single plan that she viewed as perfect, which was usually the first draft.**

* * *

_Athena smiled as Ariadne screamed in agony. She **had **been a devout worshipper. She **had **given glories to Athena._

_Unfortunately for her, she thought, she had forgotten to give her blessings to Athena in a sentence, while she was nearby. _

_She laughed as Ariadne, one of the greatest weavers within the world, began to twist and turn. New limbs began to poke out of her body, and eyes erupted upon her face. A black coat of fur erupted over her body, and after a few more minutes of the transformation, it was done._

_Ariadne had turned into the world's first spider. And Athena cackled with glee at what she had done._

* * *

**The sixth Olympian found was Aphrodite, goddess of love. Born from the ashes of the dead body of Ouranos, scattered over the seas, and considered one of the kindest Olympians. Understanding love to a fine point, even when forced by the other Olympians to marry Hephaestus, who despised all life, she maintained her dignity and stayed loyal, birthing sons and daughters for him against all odds.**

**Despite her loyalty to her marriage, she did have flaws. Often calling herself the most 'beautiful' of all the gods, and denying all other claims with a vehemence unseen by other gods. She was arrogant, but she was loyal first and foremost towards her marriage.**

* * *

_Aphrodite sighed once again. Hephaestus had sequestered himself back into his workshop again, refusing her presence within._

_She didn't know what she had done wrong. Had she acted wrong, perhaps? Was she not pretty enough yet? _

_She was determined to gain the love of Hephaestus someday. And she would spend millennia trying, again and again, time after time._

* * *

**The seventh Olympian born was Hermes. God of Thieves, Travelers, and Speed. Patron of Outcasts. He was fast enough to outpace the wind. His cunning knew no bounds. Those outcasts who sought him out found themselves in a haven of their own choosing. Filled with others like them. Murderers, killers, rapists. Where there was something wrong done that society disapproved of, Hermes was there to offer his patronage.**

**His only request was for them to march at his command. And the armies of Hermes became one of the most demented and twisted armies in history, slaughtering millions and traumatizing millions more. A true Outcast God.**

* * *

_Hermes laughed as he looked at his havens. One, a haven for those scholars without morals. The screaming mortals within them pleased him, as they all followed society's laws to the very end. The next, a haven for rapists. Women were stolen from their homes as if the wind had taken them, to please these men._

_He looked around, at the havens for outcasts, and those screaming and crying desperately for help within. Those who had followed society's laws. And he laughed dementedly, delighting in the fear and suffering of those that were not outcasts._

* * *

**The last born Olympian was Dionysus, although, ****by that point, he had not yet ascended to the ranks of Olympus. First, came the Giant War.**

**Born from what remained of the essence of Ouranos, the giants came to overthrow the gods. Determined to lead mankind into another Golden Age, the First Giant War began. Rallying mortal armies to their cause, they began the Giant War.**

* * *

_"Hundreds have died already, Porphyrion," Alcyoneus growled. "We must move against the gods now, lest more of our loyal soldiers fall against them." Porphyrion sighed. Perhaps one of Alcyoneus's biggest flaws was the refusal to sacrifice a life to save ten, made especially more ironic by his fated replacement of Hades, the god of the dead._

_It did not mean that he did not mourn them too, he thought. He simply had to see the bigger picture._

_"Brother, think for a second." He replied with frustration. "Those armies willingly volunteered to hold the front against the monstrous armies at the disposal of the gods, so that the main army of ours could retreat. We cannot, **will not**, help them unless we wish to lose our entire army and end the rebellion against the Tyrant Gods in one fell swoop."_

_Alcyoneus looked at him and snarled. "I can't accept that, brother." Porphyrion watched as his brother picked up his weapon and stormed off in the general direction of the battle. He sighed. Always so impulsive, wasn't he? _

_"Otis, Ephialtes." He said to his brothers. "Go with Alcyoneus to ensure that he doesn't do something dumb and die." They nodded and ran off to follow Alcyoneus._

_He groaned once again and sat down, looking at the map. This war was already turning the wrong way for them, he thought. And it had barely begun._

* * *

**The giants fell, one by one, by the hands of Heracles and Dionysus, sons of Zeus, and the help of the gods themselves. Typhon, kin to the giants, son of Tartarus, joined their cause and fell by treachery and deceit at the hands of the gods, trusting their monsters, being too forgiving. Typhon's imprisonment, burning eternally within a volcano, marked the beginning of the end of the Giant War.**

* * *

_He knelt, bleeding and broken at the feet of the gods. Was this how Kronos and his brothers felt, he thought with bitter amusement, when they were defeated by them?_

_"So." He started saying. "The reign of the Tyrant Gods continues-" He choked as Zeus slammed a fist into his stomach, before throwing him away._

_"Take him away." Zeus snarled. "And make sure, that wherever you're taking him to, my soldiers, to make sure it **hurts**." Zeus's eyes shined with savage joy as he watched Porphyrion dragged away in chains._

_"Your reign won't last forever, Zeus!" He screamed as he struggled. "The people **will** rebel against you!"_

_The King of Olympus laughed darkly. "Then we'll just have to make sure that their fear for themselves overrules their hatred for us, hmm?" He responded, looking down at the broken mortal armies._

* * *

**The failure of the Giant War caused mankind to fall even further, although the gods now knew the power that mortals held within them. The ability to challenge the gods. To rebel against them.**

**To counter this, Olympus released mass propaganda, changing the very history of the world. Stating that the Golden Age was a terrible place to live in, where millions died every day. That the Giants had used all the monsters at their disposal to slaughter mankind. And slowly, as a new generation of men and women grew, they grew to believe the lies.**

**The entire history of Greek Mythology had changed irrevocably.**

**To reward the 'heroes' of the Giant War, Heracles and Dionysus were made gods, although only Dionysus was offered a seat on the Olympian Council, usurping the seat of Hestia, who had disappeared decades ago.**

**As the god of wine, parties, and madness, Dionysus inherited a troubled seat, to say the least. The domain of madness grew under him, until he too, fell into madness, only showing occasional moments of sanity, at which the center, a troubled and broken god is found, cursing the Olympians for gifting him with these domains.**

* * *

_He laughed madly as he watched parties rage on around Greece. He laughed as millions were slaughtered. He laughed as Greece fell. He laughed as his domain began to fail and he began falling into sleep. He laughed because it was all he would do, **could do**, as the god of madness. He laughed at everything. A laugh truly without end._

_But, on a rare occasion, the laughs of Dionysus stopped. And all that could be heard was a man sobbing at what he had laughed at, and what he had lost in becoming a god._

* * *

**Eventually, the heart of civilization moved. Greece fell. The gods became Roman. Migrating. Following the source. They went to many countries and places over the years. Britain. France. Germany. By the second millennium, the gods had settled in America.**

**The Second Great War had ended years ago. A great oath was sworn upon hearing of a prophecy foretelling the possible end of the gods. For neither Poseidon, nor Hades, nor Zeus, to have any children.**

**But such an oath cannot be kept forever. Prophecy always has its due.**

**And let the shadows of the Second Titan War begin.**

* * *

**A/N: I thought this idea up a few days ago. Inspired by Alice Must Die and ack1308's MirrorVerse, I decided to incorporate the ideas that the heroes become the villains, and the villains the heroes. **

**To say I changed a lot is an understatement. **

**Like it or hate it. If you hate it, please provide me with reasons. If you have no reason, then I will pay no attention to you.**

**Join Discord. **** d iscord . gg /uY2 pg g3**


	2. Chapter 1

**To say that I will leave some of the demigods... mirroring their respective 'cursed' godly parents is an understatement. I have decided to honour Rick's way of writing PJO and leave it as mostly first-person writing, with occasional third-person POVs.**

You might say you want to be a demigod. Thinking of all the monsters you could kill. The great quests you could go on. The adventures you could have. The beautiful princesses you could save.

Trust me when I say you don't. As a child of Poseidon, I discovered first-hand the corruption laid within our world. But let's not talk about that, shall we? No, what you're here for is to listen to my story, as one of the few untainted children of the gods. One of the few who did not inherit their curses and hatred. One of the few who stood at the precipice of a great choice between family and power... or the righteous path filled with failures and piled with misery.

So. Let's move on forwards.

* * *

**Metropolitan Museum of Art**

My name is Percy Jackson. I'm twelve years old. Up until a few months ago, I was a student at Yancy Academy, a boarding school for troubled kids in New York.

Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that.

I could start at any point in my short, miserable life to prove it, but things really started to go bad last May, when our grade six class took a field trip to Manhattan. Twenty-eight mental case kids and two teachers heading off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at Greek and Roman stuff.

I know, I know- it sounds like torture.

Most Yancy field trips were. And Mr. Brunner was on the trip. So my already low expectations had dropped even deeper.

Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled vaguely of coffee. You wouldn't think he was evil, but trust me. The dude took it to a whole new level. Last I heard, he had hospitalized a student somehow for getting in his way- which I still had no idea how he did, considering he was in a wheelchair- and expelled two students for getting a single question wrong in their final exams last year.

I hoped against reason that the trip would be half okay. That maybe I wouldn't get in trouble for once.

Boy, was I wrong.

See, to say that bad things happen to me on field trips is like saying water is wet. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to that Saratoga battlefield. I had this accident with this Revolutionary cannon. I didn't mean to aim it at the school bus, but I got expelled anyway.

And before that, at my fourth-grade school when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, and I hit the wrong switch on the catwalk and our entire class went for an unexpected swim, made worse because Daryl had a nosebleed. I think most of the class is still traumatized, even though none of them got wounded or hurt in the slightest because of the manager's fast response time. Well, that and the sharks seemed to have... restrained themselves? I don't know. They just stared at us a bunch with barely suppressed bloodlust in their eyes, as the swimmers scooped us out.

And the time before that... well, I think you get the idea.

This time, I was determined to not screw up. I was not going to blow up a bus, nor drop my class inside a shark tank. I had put up with the bullies the entire trip, but, well... after seeing her get pelted with enchiladas and stealing her peanut-butter sandwich, I had to step in.

Grover was a... terrible person, to say the least.

Oh, sure, he was scrawny, and with his looks...

He must've been held back several grades. He was a sixth-grader alongside me, and he already had acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was supposedly 'crippled' which made sure that he didn't have to attend any PE classes. But don't let that fool you. You should've seen the trail of destruction he left in his wake when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria. He looked like the poster boy for getting bullied. But his personality on the other hand...

Well, it was unpleasant. Grover, while not physically strong, had quite the way with words, once driving the teacher to tears when she tried to give him detention. Not only that, but he was lucky too. People attempting to intimidate him would trip over plants or pieces of wood, and everyone had long concluded that it was better to leave Grover alone rather than try and 'rehabilitate' him.

"I'm going to-" I started to say, before I felt a hand land on my shoulder, smelling of plants and dirt.

"Hey, Percy!" I heard a rough voice say from behind me. "How's it going, my main man? I hope you weren't planning anything bad to me. The consequences would be..." The hand tightened. "_Bad._" I froze and looked behind me.

Grover, while I was busy mulling over my own thoughts and watching Nancy sob over her stolen peanut butter sandwich, had somehow snuck up behind me. Wonderful.

"No, no, no. Of course not, Grover. We're friends, right?" I responded nervously, pretending to chuckle. His eyes narrowed at me before he smiled.

"Of course, Percy." He responded. "Then surely you'll raise your hand and answer Mr. Brunner's question, right? That's what a _true_ friend would do." He stared at me with a sinister smile, and I knew that not answering was not an option anymore.

I slowly raised my hand as Mr. Brunner continued to verbally abuse us, calling us idiots for not knowing the answer, and glaring at us. So the usual, really, I thought. Oh, and Ms. Dodds was desperately trying to hold her mouth and not reassure us.

Ms. Dodds was quite possibly, one of the nicest teachers I've ever known. She was this little math teacher from Georgia, who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked kind of mean, but her personality... man, her personality was just amazing.

Her first day of class, after the last math teacher had suffered a tragic injury during work, which pretty much everyone attributed to Mr. Brunner, after she had crossed him, and had been her replacement. On her first day, she had told us that there would be no homework or tests on the first day and gave us all freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. She had never handed out detention and was patient and calm with us, even with Grover, although he tested her patience. A lot.

I once told him that he should stop messing with her, with how nice she was, and he just barked out laughing and told me. "Nah, dude, she's the devil! Gotta expose her for what she is!" I was 50% sure he was high on shrooms at the time

"Ah, Mr. Jackson!" He snarled at me. "I'm glad to see that there's at least one person with half a brain in here." Glaring at the rest of the class, who all responded by glaring at me for his verbal abuse. Great. I was definitely going to pay for this later.

"Now, Mr. Jackson. Can you tell me what this statue is, and what it is doing?" He pointed at a mural, and I sighed in relief. I knew that one, at least.

"That's Kronos fighting his children after they discovered how much of a bad person he was, right?" I replied.

"Yes." He responded, obviously not done with me. "And why?"

"Uh..." I racked my head trying to remember.

"Kronos was the king god-" I started saying before Mr. Brunner interrupted me with a snarl.

"God?" He looked at me coldly.

"Titan." I corrected myself saying. "And he was the king Titan, and he was really evil. So, his kids, the gods, revolted against him, and they won." I finished up saying.

"And why, Mr. Jackson, is this important now?" He said in response.

"Uh..." Well, shoot. I... didn't know.

"For your efforts, Mr. Jackson." He cooly said while glaring at me. "You will only lose 50% of the credits on this trip, unlike the rest of your fellow students. Kronos was indeed a tyrant of the highest tier, murdering hundreds. After the war was over, the gods, having hardened their hearts against their father, ordered the Hecatoncheires and the Elder Cyclopes to tear him apart. And they obliged by cutting him into a thousand pieces, using his own scythe as the weapon. Now, normally, for what you've failed to do today, class, I would fail you all." The entire class groaned.

"But," He started to say, and the entire class perked up. "I am feeling merciful today. So no marks will be lost. _For now. _Now, screw off, you little bastards, and get your worthless hides outside to eat your lunch!" He roared out, and the entire class fled, thankful to be spared from the wrath of Mr. Brunner.

I turned around to leave, but Mr. Brunner called. "Mr. Jackson. Stay behind."

Feeling dread, I looked back and walked back to Mr. Brunner. He looked coldly at me and said. "I will only accept the best from you, Mr. Jackson, not this monstrosity of an explanation that you gave me." He growled at me. "And I expect my question to be answered. Of how what you learn today, affects you in real life. Otherwise, well... I will not be merciful as I was today, Mr. Jackson.

I didn't get it. I was angry at him, to say the least.

The dude was consistently pushing at me. Telling me I wasn't good enough. He wanted me to be a cut above the rest, never mind the fact that I had ADHD and dyslexia, and never got above a C- in my life. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.

"Now leave." He looked coldly at me, before rolling his wheelchair away. Probably off to look for more ways to torture me, I fumed as he left, before I slowly turned around and walked outside.

Walking outside, the entire class acted... as they did normally. The girls hanging out in their own little corner, and the guys acting like complete doofuses, pretending to be Kronos or the Heca... whatever they were, pulling Kronos apart.

Overhead, a massive storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen above the city. I figured it was probably global warming or something, what with all the weird weather we'd been getting all across New York state since Christmas. We'd had massive snowstorms, forest fires, and floodings. I really wouldn't be surprised if this was a hurricane coming in to ravage New York, to be honest.

Nobody seemed to notice, of course. The guys, after finishing their game of pretending to be Kronos, had begun pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers, and Nancy was busy attempting to pickpocket a lady's purse, and Ms. Dodds was busy trying to tell the guys not to pelt the birds.

I sat on the edge of the fountain, hoping I'd be left alone. I thought that if I acted separate enough from the rest of the group, people wouldn't think I was from that school. The school where all lazy misfits and loser freaks went because they couldn't make it anywhere else.

And of course, as usual, Grover sat next to me, staring at me. "So. What did Brunner say to you?" He asked, with something that I might've mistaken for concern if it wasn't for the enjoyment I saw in his eyes.

"Just saying stuff about expecting more and better from me," I muttered. "I mean, I don't get it. The dude picks on me so much. Nine out of ten times, the reason I go to detention is because of him. What a jerk." I didn't get it though. What did he see in me for him to push so hard at me and target me so much?

Grover didn't say anything for a while, and for a second there, I thought he might actually keep his mouth shut. Then he looked at me again, smirking, and said. "Gimme your apple, dude."

Of course, I gave it to him. Nobody, and I meant _no one_, refused Grover Underwood. That, and I didn't have much of an appetite.

I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted to jump in a taxi and ride for home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, reminding me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to get kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.

Mr. Brunner had parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while reading a paperback. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.

As I unwrapped my sandwich and prepared to eat it, Nancy Bobofit walked up to me and dropped her half-eaten lunch in my lap.

"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with Cheetos.

See, that was the thing about Nancy. Yes, she got bullied by Grover, but just about _everyone_ got bullied by Grover. All that made sure of was that she would never bully Grover. Me, on the other hand? Well, Nancy viewed me as 'fair game'.

Now, at that point, I tried to stay calm. The school counsellor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.

I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming. "Percy pushed me!'

Mr. Brunner looked up, interested, as Ms. Dodds winced in the background.

Some of the kids were whispering. "Did you see-"

"-the water-"

"-like it grabbed her-"

I don't know what they were talking about. All I knew that I was in trouble. Again.

As soon as everyone made sure that Nancy was okay, they turned their eyes onto me. They had been holding a lot of restrained anger since inside the museum, and I had just made myself the perfect target. Thankfully, at that point, Ms. Dodds intervened.

"Now, dearies, let's calm down for a second-" She said as she broke up the commotion.

To say that I was thankful was putting it lightly. I didn't feel like dealing with trying to stop the entire class from beating the crap out of me when the teachers weren't looking.

"I'll take care of Percy, okay? You just take care of poor Nancy over there." She finished up, as the crowd, grumbling with annoyance, dispersed.

"Now, Percy, can you come into the museum with me please so we can talk over your actions today?" She asked kindly.

"Bitch, leave him alone." I heard Grover say in the background. "Let me come with. Trust me, I'm Perce's friend, right, Perce?" He winked at me, and I had never been so ashamed to have not denied the accusation earlier when he made the claim during the school year.

"Now, now, Mr. Underwood, this is not something that requires your presence. Why don't you go help Nancy instead?" She said, oblivious of what Grover would do to Nancy.

Despite what Nancy had done to me, I grimaced. That was not a fate I wished upon anyone.

His eyes glinted, and he responded by saying. "Sure, sure. I'll go help Nancy..." He giggled a bit as he walked towards the fountain, Nancy having a terrified look on her face.

She sighed with relief, not knowing of the fate she had just condemned Nancy too. She turned back to me and gestured for me to follow her, and I hesitated for a second and looked back.

Seeing Nancy driven to the point of tears by Grover and his words were somewhat satisfying to me, even if I felt bad for feeling good about it.

I turned back to follow Ms. Dodds, but she had already somehow materialized near the top of the stairs, gesturing for me to follow her.

How'd she get there so fast?

I have moments like that a lot, when my brain just falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know, I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and I was left staring blankly at the empty spot. My school counsellor told me this was part of my ADHD, my brain missing things.

I wasn't so sure.

I went after Ms. Dodds.

Halfway up the steps, I looked down. I saw Grover walking towards Mr. Brunner, as if trying to get his attention, but Mr. Brunner just looked like he was absorbed in his book.

I looked back up, and she had disappeared. Again. She was now inside the building, tapping her feet impatiently as she gestured for me to come up and waited for me inside.

Great. I thought. She was probably going to make me buy a new t-shirt for Nancy or something.

But apparently, that wasn't the plan.

I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up with her, we were in the Greek and Roman section.

Except for us, the gallery was empty.

Ms. Dodds stood with her arms held behind her back, her eyes flickering nervously back and forth between me and the big marble frieze of the Greek gods for some reason. I shrugged. Better to get this over with.

Although, I was strangely nervous. My senses were screaming at me that this wasn't normal. And, well, it wasn't. It's weird being alone with a teacher, even if it is Ms. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to flee from it...

"Look, Percy, you've been giving us problems." She began to say, and looked at me expectantly for my response.

I did the safe thing. I said. "Yes, ma'am."

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket, looking even more nervous. "You didn't really think you could get away with it, did you?"

The look in her eyes was... interesting. It looked as if she wanted to confront me about something, but didn't want to do anything about it out of fear.

She's a teacher. I thought. It's not like I, as a student, can do anything bad to her. Especially towards her. The nicest teacher in the school.

I said. "I'll- I'll try harder, ma'am."

Thunder shook the building, and in the distance, I could've sworn I vaguely heard the rumbling feet of something running.

"We are not fools, Percy Jackson." She said, looking even more nervous. "It was only a matter of time before we found out. Confess, and I will do all in my power to ask for a lesser punishment."

I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found that illegal stash of candy I'd been supplying and selling out of my dorm room.

Or maybe they'd realized that I'd got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, make me actually read the book from head to toe and then actually do it.

"Well?" She asked, flinching as the booming outside grew louder.

"Ma'am, I don't-"

"Our time is up." She muttered, looking at her watch- which definitely had not been there before, as the roof of the museum suddenly shattered, and... _something_ came down.

I didn't know how to describe it. It was... a boy made out of black clouds. He had wings of sorts, but they were also made out of the same black cloud. Lighting arched all around them, and the thunder outside only grew louder. And their eyes... they were sparkling with electricity, with barely contained rage within them.

"PERCY JACKSON!" The boy roared. "YOU HAVE STOLEN SOMETHING THAT WAS NOT YOURS TO TAKE. NOW SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!"

And then he raised his hand and a lightning bolt manifested within it, before he tossed it at me.

Now, as a kid, I've always had pretty good reactions. But even _I_ couldn't attest to being faster than lighting.

I half expected to die right then and there, if it wasn't for Ms. Dodds suddenly... changing as well, and tossing herself in front of me.

And she certainly looked different. Her eyes, which had previously been black, were suddenly glowing like barbeque coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was now a shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth filled with fangs. She was the definition of a storybook monster.

And she saved me, blocking the lightning bolt with her wings.

Now, I had never reacted well under pressure, so when Ms. Dodds and Smoke Guy both began to fight, I just slowly backed away, hoping neither of them would notice me.

Then I tripped on a fountain pen.

Now, stumbling back, I saw that I had caught Smoke Guy's attention again, and Ms. Dodds had... disappeared? There was a large pile of yellow dust where she just was. So... she died?

He charged me with a murderous look in his eyes. My knees were made of jelly. My hands were trembling so badly that I almost dropped the pen which had ended up being the only weapon I had.

He snarled. "Die, thief!" Before leaping at me.

Now, you might ask how I survived, right?

Well, the pen's cap fell off. And suddenly I had a bronze sword in my hand.

And Smoke Guy leaped right onto the sword.

With a shocked look on his face, he slowly... dissipated into the winds. Black clouds and smoke disappearing into the wind.

I was alone.

There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.

There was only me.

My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something, I concluded.

Had I imagined the whole thing?

I went back outside. It had started to rain.

Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tent over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her time in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said. "I hope Ms. Kerr whipped your butt."

I said, "Who?"

"Our teacher. Duh!" She replied

I blinked. We had no teacher named Ms. Kerr. I asked Nancy who she was talking about.

She just rolled her eyes and turned away.

I turned around to ask Grover where Ms. Dodds was.

He snorted and said, "Who's Ms. Dodds?"

But he had hesitated for a second, so I figured he was messing with me.

"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."

Thunder boomed overhead.

I saw Mr. Brunner rolling his wheelchair over to me, with his book gone and his umbrella still up. He came over to me and snatched the pen out of my hand, snarling. "That's my pen, you little shit. Detention for the rest of the day for you, _and_ you don't get any marks today."

"Sir," I asked him nervously, afraid of pouring gas on the fire. "Do you know where Ms. Dodds went?"

He stared at me with confusion. "Who?"

"The other chaperone. Ms. Dodds. You know, the pre-algebra teacher."

He frowned and leaned forward, growling at me. "Jackson, are you insinuating that I do not know something? There is not Ms. Dodds on this trip, you moron, and that's an extra day of detention for you for doubting my word."

* * *

**Depths of Tartarus**

"Has my brother been convinced yet of what must happen?"

"No. He still refuses to return. He claims he deserves what happened to him."

A man sighed. He was tall, muscular, and bearded, with fiercely glowing skin. His eyes were akin to miniature suns. His aura was similar to that of Apollo or Helios's, except more powerful, and less harsh then either of theirs was.

Beside him was another man. He was tiny, at least compared to the first man. He wore a suit of armour and held a single blade within his hand, and was leaning on it heavily.

The first man was Hyperion, Titan of Light and the East. The second man was one of their last loyal lieutenants, a mortal who had followed them during the Titanomachy and had fallen alongside them into the Pit. He had long since forgotten his name and his life before, and all he remembered was the benevolence of the Titans... and the cruelty of the gods.

Hyperion looked back down into the cave. "He has to know it was not his fault." He said quietly. "It was not his fault that the gods turned evil and usurped the throne of the cosmos."

"Aye, he knows that much," The second man told him. "But it is not that which he is blaming himself for. He blames himself for what they have become. He blames himself for what the Titans have been reduced to. He blames himself for what the world of man has fallen to, nothing but food and drink to the gods."

Hyperion remained quiet, continuing to stare at the ageless cave. His brother had to know that even if his foresight had failed them at the last second... it did not mean that they had hated him.

For better or worse, they were still brothers.

Hyperion sighed as he stepped into the cave of Koios, Titan of Foresight and of the North, preparing to plead and bargain with his brother once more.

* * *

**Olympus**

One might think that the Olympians were united. A great Empire, united under the laws of Zeus. A noble shield guarding the realm of men.

It was an Empire that was impossible to break, some had boasted. It had lasted for thousands of years, and it would last for thousands more, they claimed. All who stood against it would fall, similar to throughout history, towards all the other enemies that had broken themselves against the armies of Olympus.

In truth, it was anything but that.

The Olympians only followed the word of Zeus when it suited them. Zeus only followed his own laws as he saw it fitted him. The Grecian Empire of Olympus was not an Empire. It was several smaller kingdoms, all with their independence and autonomy, theoretically united under the banner of the gods into one great Empire.

Clearly, this peace was _very_ theoretical.

Zeus made his laws, and none would follow them, not even he.

Rights? Slavery was rampant within the Olympian Empire. Hundreds died every day, and not by old age. Torture was considered an acceptable past time for many people. Debts were never forgiven.

Humanity? Mankind had been unknowingly brutally destroyed by the gods. Members of their race were raped, tortured, and killed by the Olympians every day, masked by the Mist to blame upon other mortals. Monsters freely reigned the streets, eating and consuming whoever they wished, thanks to the promise made by the gods. After all, when all your crimes were masked and the victim did not even know you existed, what fear did you have, to do whatever you wanted to?

And the great 'armies' of the gods? Oh, yes, they existed, definitely. But unfortunately, each had its own loyalty to their commander. Conflicting orders and prideful hatred had fractured them on multiple occasions. Hermes's Outcast Army and the Warriors of Ares had clashed on more than one occasion. The Huntresses of Artemis had fought against every army within Olympus at some point.

There was no unity amongst the gods. Only hatred and greed. The 'Cold War' as mortals called it, would've looked like a small argument over burgers compared to the tension surrounding all of Olympus. All it would take was one small, tiny push to throw Olympus into civil war.

Now, granted, there were certain precautions taken against this. The Ancient Laws, which even the gods must bend and follow, was one of these precautions. The dangers of outsiders invading was another, and the gods would align with each other automatically should a greater threat appear.

But that was all the precautions they had. No other pacts bound them together. No great oaths or promises sworn could've put them together. None had dared to challenge Olympus for centuries. And the gods had grown decadent and arrogant. Believing that no other powers would attack them. And their inner feuds, their hatred for each other, overwhelmed their common sense.

Olympus was on the tipping point. The gods all despised each other. Some might've allied with one another, but all they could think of was of the crown and promised power at the end of the road. So no alliance was built without precautions against each other. No pact was forged without both gods thinking about stabbing each other in the back.

The realms of the gods were preparing for war. The automatons of Hephaestus began to craft better weapons, readying themselves for the forge of war. Poseidon made dark pacts with darker creatures, promising them great power for their services. Apollo had begun to experiment with new and deadlier diseases, ready to release them upon the soldiers of the other gods. And so on, and so forth, more gods jumped into preparing for the incoming war, eager to seize the power from the cold, dead hands of their enemies.

And Percy Jackson would find that he would stand at the heart of this war. And he would be the catalyst that either stopped the civil war...

Or begin it and lead to the end of Western Civilization.

**Chapters will get smaller. I'll keep them to a minimum of five thousand words, at least.**

**Updates will be random, but I'll try and keep it to at least once every month.**

**Join the server. **** dis cor d. gg/ uY2 pgg 3**


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